Raise the Grade is committed to making our program and our web resources available and accessible to children and youth in our communities, as well as our volunteers, community supporters and visitors. We’ve tried to make sure our web site is friendly, interactive and accessible to everyone including those using screen readers and/or mobile devices.

What we’ve done to make our web site more accessible

Customized display on mobile devices and when magnified

If you are viewing this site on a mobile phone or tablet the site will automatically adjust the screen display to fit your smart phone or tablet.

You can also adjust the magnification of this website by adjusting the font size or zoom setting on your browser or operating system, or by expanding or reducing the width of the browser window. The layout of the site will adjust to optimize display at higher or lower zoom setting or at narrower widths.

Added accessibility features for screen readers and visitors using the keyboard only to navigate the site

Skip to Content

This feature lets visitors skip repeated content at the beginning of each page (such as the header items and navigation) and go straight to the main page content.

This is particularly useful for those visiting our site using a screen reader. It gives screen reader users a way to avoid listening to repetitive content being read and just skip to the main content on the page.

Described Images

Images we create for our web site and blogs have text that identifies or describes the content of the images. These descriptions (alternative text attributes) replace the information that would be conveyed by images for visitors using screen readers or when the images are turned off.

Headings Navigation

We’ve taken care to ensure the site has a logical heading structure, so visitors with assistive devices or with customized accessibility settings on their browsers can get a quick overview of the site, and navigate quickly between section headings.

Use of Colour

The web site does not include content or functionality which relies on colour alone to convey key information.

Links to external sites

As a service to our site visitors and program participants, we have provide links to sites that provide further information. We cannot ensure the accessibility of sites that are not managed by Raise the Grade. Please note that all external links on the Links page, and within the Learn it Yourself modules open in a new tab.

Used web standards development practices and new techniques

Because we know our visitors will view our site both on older desktop computers, as well as laptops, smart phones and tablets, and navigating our site using a variety of browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari…), we’ve used web standards development practices and some cutting edge techniques to build the site:

Developed using HTML 5, CSS3 and jQuery

CSS is used for presentation and to adapt the display of the site for mobile devices and screen readers.

Tables are not used for layout

Form fields and controls are labelled with a name that describes their purpose

All pages have titles that describe their purpose

Things you can do to customize site accessibility

In addition to what we’ve done to make our site accessible, here are some tips that you can use to adapt the site to your specific accessibility requirements:

You can alter the line length of the site by changing the size and shape of your browser window.

You can override the colour scheme of this web site by changing your browser’s preferred colour settings.

You can customize mouse pointer visibility in your operating system • You can change the zoom setting in your browser to view the site larger or smaller.

You can update your browser version, or the version of the screen reader that you’re using to a newer version that supports HTML 5.

A Note about Social Media

To make our site more useful interactive for all our visitors we have integrated social media and other popular interactive and media sharing widgets (including Facebook, Twitter and Flicker). We cannot guarantee that these third party tools will necessarily conform to web accessibility standards.

Looking forward

We continue to develop our public web site, as well as the community site used by our program participants, mentors and staff.

If you’d like assistance accessing our website, please contact us. We welcome comments or suggestions about how we can continue to improve the accessibility of our web site: support@raisethegrade.ca.

Raise the Grade is a national educational program of Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada.